Bind Me Within These Ocean's Tides
by MinaMauveine
Summary: These waters are well-known for harbouring ferocious creatures of lore. Though it's been eons since a human has done more than claim a fabled encounter. Or Lesbianism transcends species when Kara's inherent goodness charms a cold blooded heart. Or The mermaid AU that no one asked for.
1. Chapter 1

Kara sat at the edge of the pier and swung her legs to and fro through the clear waters. She watched the summer sun fade, its bright colours drained into the lapping ocean waves. She loved being cocooned in this tropical heat during her holidays. She held the glass bottle of her coke against her chest, letting the condensation seep onto her skin.

She cracked open the twist top with a hiss.

"That smells rancid." A voice too melodic to be saying such words sounded below.

Kara nearly spilled the drink onto herself.

"It's too sharp." The voice said again.

Kara peered over the edge of the wooden boards, her hair falling into the waters. "Hello?"

A face glowing of moonshine crested through the water. "Hello."

"Wow." Kara gasped, the woman's eyes were midnight green, though the dark shade shined with a iridescent shimmer.

The woman giggled, it was a sound to match the finest instruments.

Kara hadn't expected anyone to be in this area. The trip over to this natural rocky curve into the ocean was heavily forested which kept the causal tourists from coming.

She knew all the locals and had never met this woman before.

She would've remember.

The woman smiled, her teeth pearl white within her dark dark lips.

Kara definitely would've remember.

"I'm Kara."

The woman laughed again and came closer. "A pleasure to meet you, I'm Lena."

They stayed in proximity to one another, but Lena's impish smile kept Kara's words at bay and her tongue tied.

"Would you accompany me for a swim?" The sun had all but gone from the sky at this point which made it hard to discern the woman's expression, her voice had changed, becoming even more musical.

"Oh, yes," Kara in her haste to join jumped up to kick off her shorts, "I'm a good swimmer!"

Lena made her way to the front of the pier just in time to grasp the bottle of coke that nearly spilt into the ocean. "Careful!"

"Sorry!" Kara knelt down to steady the drink and grazed her fingers against Lena's. "You're so cold, maybe you'll want to come up for a bit? I'm staying with relatives and dinner will be starting soon… do you have dietary restrictions I could go grab whatever you liked."

"How accommodating." Lena smiled, but quirked her brow. "Though I rather you fulfil my first request before offering me more of your services?"


	2. Chapter 2

Kara dove from the pier, but when she surfaced found Lena much further from the shores.

Kara's sight was oddly blurred. She lost sight of her new friend only to moments later catch a glimmer of midnight hair. With each stroke it brought her closer to a growing crescendo of song. Music strummed from the ever nearing distance, a orchestra of voices merging to one luring anthem that promised endless bliss if Kara could just follow and find it.

The fatigue in her arms and legs seemed all but gone until she swam right into Lena.

"You found me." Lena seemed saddened by that statement as she stayed afloat with little to no effort, seeming to merely bob with the current.

Kara glanced down curiously, but found Lena's fingertips tilting her chin back up to face a ephemeral gaze. "Do you have a fascination towards beauty, Kara?"

"I… Umm." Kara blushed crimson.

"Are you enamored with the nature and artifacts of these shores?" Lena's words were in a cadence that matched ever so well with the ethereal music that swelled with each wave of the ocean. "Confess your greed and desires to me, give me your truths."

"Every summer since I was a kid." Kara's thoughts were distracted by the hand Lena had carded through her golden hair. "I would explore and explore and…"

"Would you like to discover a secret? You wouldn't be able to speak about the incident to a single soul, " Lena's hand was now cradled against the back of Kara's neck, her nails sharp and her voice enticing with promise, "though you alone would own this treasure."

"Own?" Kara shook her head, the trance was wound tightly enough to make her motion barely perceivable. "I want… I want to be a marine biologist… I want to take part with the ocean restoration branch here… I wouldn't take any secret that belongs to the seas," Kara's focus solidified as the very core of being was brought to surface, "I couldn't possibly claim nature, only hope to preserve it."

Lena paused, completely stymied by what Kara had said and how the human had managed to sober from the pod's siren call. Her surprise translated to an bemused swish of her tail which bumped Kara's leg.

"Oh!" Kara instinctively pulled Lena closer into her arms as she scanned the water. "I think I felt a large fish, they don't mean any harm, but they can be… You have a tail!"

"Yes. I do." Lena answered, voice returning to the same melodic tune it was when she had first appeared at the pier. It was now less overwhelming to Kara's senses, Lena's words had for a moment sounded as an otherworldly decree. "Aren't you afraid of me?"

"Are you kidding me, this is so cool, you're a mermaid!" Kara's delight calmed when she noticed Lena's trepidation. "Should… Should I be scared?"

Lena indecisively flicked her tail back and forth, the music has stopped. She turned suddenly, whipping her hair over her shoulder. Kara noticed the translucent frills along Lena's flared ear and two slits of gasping gills along her slender neck. "You must leave!"


	3. Chapter 3

"Huh?"

Lena scooped Kara into her arms in a whirl of activity that turned the waters bubbling white. She stopped any reflexive struggling when she pressed her lips against the human's.

Kara sighed into a kiss that sparked and tasted of ozone.

Lena cradled Kara into her arms and dove deep into the waters. She kept sinking towards the ocean floors until she could thrashed each stroke of her tail into the sands. While the space in front of her was clear, the trail she left was swirling with great plumes of sand and silt.

Kara held her breath and closed her eyes. She clearly couldn't match Lena's speed or whatever else was chasing them. Lena's great urgency made her fear and clench tightly to the mermaid, but Lena seemed unperturbed by Kara's vice like grip.

'When did we get so far from shore?' Kara confusedly thought, it had felt as minutes since she'd left the pier.

Though she tried her best she finally sputtered out the stale air in her chest. She gasped and swallowed great mouthfuls of burning water. She thought she was going to die by asphyxiation, but found herself breathing out and in without much resistance or pain.

'I can breathe?! I'm going to live!"

'You'll need to be more weary of temptations if you wish to continue living.'

Kara snapped to face Lena, she recognized that voice, but they were still going through the waters and couldn't possibly talking.

'I CAN HEAR YOU!'

'Hush! Please, all could've heard that.'

Lena brought Kara as quickly as she dared back to the pier, but still Kara coughed violently as the water left her lungs. A human's body was unable to acclimatize to such dramatic changes in so short a duration.

Lena bent her tail so Kara could lean against her as she regained her bearings. She guided Kara's pruning hands onto the rusting metal ladder and whispered for her to climb.

Kara's lips were turning blue and yet she turned to ask. "Are you going to be alright?"

Lena tilted her head. "Mind your own state."

"I know the tales linked to this island, I just never thought… you can only enter this portion of the inlet because you haven't taken a life, right?"

Lena blushed, colouring with shame from being found out. She had yet to take a human life. She felt guilty for being as thankful as she was to participate as only a lure and not a captor.

It was against their nature to be so weak.

"Are you in any danger because of what you've done." Kara asked again.

"Kara, our paths will diverge, my fate should not trouble you."

"You just saved my life!"


	4. Chapter 4

"A life that wasn't in peril until you encountered me!" Lena's eyes paled as her nictitating membranes blinked close. Her jaw dropped, unhinging to display rows among rows of razor sharp teeth, deeper in the recess of her mouth held a smaller set of jaws with thin knife like incisors.

Kara's grip on the ladder tightened, but she didn't pull herself out of the waters. Her words were soft, but determined. "If you wanted to harm me, you would've already."

Lena sighed, and pushed the back of Kara's leg to once again encourage her to finish the climb.

"Could I maybe bring a cow?" Kara tried again.

Lena frowned, but the absurdity of the offer made her pause and then giggle and hiccup into tears when she pondered her predicament. "No animal you could coax to these waters would suffice, Kara, only time will ease their anger towards me now."

Kara reached out and brushed away pearling tears. "Will you have enough to eat here?"

"I will endure." Lena moved away from the touch and Kara let her hand drop.

After a several long moments of inactivity, Kara built up the courage to ask. "Can I come back to visit you?"

"Why would you want to?" Lena was genuinely concerned for this human's lack of self-preservation.

"I don't want you to have to 'endure' something I caused, I could at least bring you food."

"Kara, has it slipped your naive mind that I tried to consume you." Lena swished her tail agitatedly. "You were to be my rite of passage, I was going to eat you!"

Kara knew it was ridiculous, but she blushed horridly at the unintentional innuendo and choked on air as she tried to talk too quickly.

"Kara?" Lena's care was instant as she used her tail to propel herself higher up so she could roughly pat Kara's back. "You're still adapting to the spell I cast, the discomfort will soon pass."

Kara coughed a while more until she turned to face Lena. "I'm not mad that you tried to lure a human, wow that's a weird statement to make, 'a human' because you're clearly not human which means there are groups in the animal kingdom I haven't even considered." Kara paused, her bewilderment getting the better of her for a moment. "I mean, humans as a species are trespassing and you were just doing what was natural for your species."

Lena blinked owlishly and found herself once again speechless. She was not accustomed to feeling like this and swiftly pushed off from the pier.

Lena swam deep into the waters until the mermaid completely disappeared from view.

Kara found her dreams submerged in waves as she followed a tail of the richest green, laced with shimmering scales of turquoise.


	5. Chapter 5

Kara dutifully returned the next day to find her soda waiting on the pier, warm, flat and completely untouched. Had she imagined the woman in the water that had steadied her drink?

Had her vividly coloured dreams been only dreams and not reality?

It was so hard to tell.

Trying to remember last night's incident was like peering into an undersea chasm. The events could barely be recalled and when she tried none of them could be shuffled in sequence before she lost even the barest hint of the memory.

The only thing that lingered was the tune. A ethereal music that echoed only at the farthest recesses of her mind. The songs tugged her heart with a deep yearning. A melody so haunting and yet so completely incomprehensible.

Kara sighed and plopped down onto the end of the pier. Letting the fish as large as her arm flop just as bonelessly next to her. She brought the largest fresh fish they had on sale since she didn't know how much a mermaid ate. Though to guess by Lena's size and length-if she were just a normal Marine animal- this tiny cove wouldn't be enough to keep her fed.

Though all of this would only matter if Lena was in actuality a mermaid and not something concocted because of sea water ingestion. Kara had tried to breath under her bath water last night and nearly coughed up her lung for trying.

Kara closed her eyes, feeling equal turns silly then determined to see the whole thing through. She was training to be a scientist and she'll be damned to only returned once. She looked into the welcoming waters and let another breath out. The trek here wasn't easy and she was dripping with sweat, but she was unsure if she should enter.

If Lena was more than a figment of her imagination and had been exiled from her community then this was to be her home which made it seem rude to wash-

"Does land living dim your survival instincts into non-existence?"

"Lena, you're real!" Kara cheered and immediately enveloped the woman into her arms. She lifted Lena up and spun around once in glee. She grew up hearing all of the lore about this island and even saw it with her own eyes last night, but still! It felt all a dream until she had Lena in her hold, until she touched the blacked hair beauty and instantly felt her memories solidify.

"Of course I'm real!" Lena wiggled out of the taller woman's arms and stepped back, though her lips were slightly curled into a grin.

Looking down at Lena's pale legs barely covered by a translucent glossimer wrap, Kara pointed out the obvious. "You have legs!"

"Hmmm." Lena offered back, her attention on the fish beside Kara's backpack. "Have you brought that for me?"

"Oh yeah, of course." Kara grabbed the fish by its gill flap. "I didn't know what kind of fish you'd like, but umm, how'd you like me to cook it?"

Lena blinked and then covered her mouth as she snickered and remembered Kara's invitation to yesterday night's dinner.

"Silly question, I'm guessing? You must eat everything raw, I'm sorry it's not more fresh."

"It'll suffice, there's only small aquatics in this area so I had to travel onto land, I can honestly say I prefer scales to fur."

It was only now that Kara noticed the blood drenched all over the front of Lena's shirtless body.

She nearly swallowed her tongue.


	6. Chapter 6

"Ah," Lena glanced down at herself, "I must appear quite ghastly."

Without another word she sauntered towards the end of the pier, she grinned over her shoulder when she caught Kara watching absolutely mesmerized."When you embraced me I was still covered in blood, you may want to wash off as well."

Kara pressed her lips together and tired not to gulp as Lena dove soundlessly into the water. She knew that Lena was as bare today as she was last night and honestly nudity shouldn't really be the 'wow factor' considering she was talking to a living breathing mermaid. But… But…How the hell was someone that clearly functioned most of their life with a tail that alluring when walking?!

Lena surfaced, her tailed once again formed and showing clearly beneath the waters. She tilted her head and looked expectantly at the fish in Kara's hand.

Kara hoped the hunger in Lena's eyes wasn't for human flesh.. She jumped in with her fingers still hooked to the gills of her offering and prayed it to be an adequate enough meal.

Kara cannonballed in and sunk to the very bottom. She found Lena immediately in front of her. Lena circled lazily around Kara as the human kicked her way back to the surface.

"Huh."

Lena slowed her circling."What is it?"

Kara pointed to the long dorsal fin that speared up from the mid of Lena's back then tapered down and along the length of Lena's tail. "It's like a sharks in size, but shaped and coloured like a Siamese fighting fish's."

"It stabilizes our movement." Lena shrugged.

Kara held out the fish which was promptly snatched. It was as if Lena was worried she would have to fight for her meal. Her eyes once again paled and her jaw unhinged as she tore into the hapless meal.

'Oh.' Kara thought fondly, amazement trumping any fear towards the savage display. 'Mermaids are messy.'

'I beg your pardon, but most of my prey are live and either fast enough to swim away from me or become stolen by a member of my pod.'

Kara bit her lip, she had not realized her thoughts were still being heard.

'It'll wear out with time, but after transference, proximity will prolong the magic.'

'So mermaids are magic?'

'All water-beings are all containers of magic, hence why we were once hunted to extinction for medicinal properties…" Lena paused and wearily stared at Kara.

Kara thoughts spluttered as she realized why Lena had stopped talking. 'I would never, I hadn't even… I didn't know anything about that, I'm just trying to make conversation and to get to know you.'

'Why do you want to know me?' Lena had finished the fish, bone and all.

Kara felt like that speed and voraciousness should frighten her, but Lena was far too gentle and fascinating to fear.

Lena pouted as she half-heartedly unhinged her jaw once again. 'I'll have you know that I'm the fastest in my pod.'

'I'm sorry I didn't mean that to be heard… I'm just, I'm going to go above water so I can just talk and not just ramble on and then make you listen to it cause you're gorgeous and it's… You're a mermaid!"

Kara would've smacked herself in the face if she wasn't busy swimming back to the pier. She pulled herself out and laid her face flat against the heated planks of wood. The temperature had nothing to do with her full body blush.

"Did you choose me or was it just chance that I got caught." Kara mumbled.

"You chose to come here."

Kara sat up and dangled her legs back over the side to be closer to Lena, "I mean, I've explored this whole island."

Lena shook her head. "You have the gift, you had to be taken…" she bit her lip, obviously upset at her own failure to deliver for her pod.

"What gift?" Kara tightened her fist and for the first time worried if coming here was a mistake. It seemed her presence posed as a temptation.

If Lena were to kill Kara, then perhaps the previous transgressions to her pod would be forgiven.


	7. Chapter 7

"You're only human, too diluted to be anything else, what with the eons of separation. Mixed offspring of the fae have a history of forgetting their heritage and becoming hunters." Lena wrapped her fingers slowly around Kara's ankle, if she just dragged this foolish maiden to her pod... "You're attuned to magical beings and will always have a knack for finding sacred grounds."

Lena looked up at Kara, found the sunlight haloed around the human's face. She released her grip as Kara offered a genuinely apologetic expression. "I'm sorry your species was hunted, I'm…, is there anything I can do now?"

'What a calf.' Lena couldn't imagine killing something so guileless. She could claim that it wasn't sporting, but the pod wouldn't care. Kara had hunter blood and it made her a threat. Talking to her now was supposed to be a threat, but there was no one else for Lena to converse with and even for one that preferred solitude as she did… Mermaids were still pod creatures.

"Not unless you could turn back the motion of time."

"I can't do that, but if I could I would." Kara said, once again earnestly apologetic.

Lena waved her hand, pushing away the apology and dove deep into the water. She couldn't handle this strange human.

'If you don't mind I have a question.' Kara thought out to the siren.

'Ask.'

'You had legs, how?'

Lena emerged her upper body from the waters and swam towards the shallower waters, waiting for Kara to match her pace along the pier. As she came to the sandy banks she had to wade her way up in a manner that made Kara think of sea turtles beaching to lay eggs.

It certainly wasn't graceful.

Lena glared daggers up at Kara. "You asked and I'm showing, will your commentary continue to be rude."

Kara gulped and motioned to offer help, but Lena hissed at her.

"Sorry!"

When Lena felt she had moved far enough up onto the beach laid out on her back and let her tail drape onto soft dry sand.

Kara waited quietly, being mindful she didn't just stare at Lena's nakedness, but after 5 minutes. "Do you need me to go while you say a spell or…?"

Lena snorted, and closed her eyes as she stretched out under the sun. "I have to dry completely before I can regain my legs."


	8. Chapter 8

"You could live a human life if you just walk out of the sea?!"

"Not quite… Dry land has nothing to entice me," Lena none too subtlely roamed her eyes up and down Kara's body before continuing, "I would have to return every … while." She wasn't willing to give the duration of her limits. "It isn't uncommon for those nursing injuries to remain in shallow waters or go on land for human meat, we heal faster on your blood."

"Oh," Kara chewed the inside of her cheek, "how about those giving birth or very old?"

Lena tilted her head quizzically, but humoured another question. "We birth within our pods, there's nowhere safer and our elderly willingly take down the hardest of preys in the hopes of using the last of their abilities to strengthen our pod."

"Like attack a really big shark?"

"Or an enormous jellyfish."

Lena said it with such a straight face that Kara couldn't tell if she was having her on.

"Are there other creatures like you?"

"Ask."

"Kelpies?"

"Ah, I should have known we wouldn't have similar names for creatures."

"Kelpies are these horses rumored and told as fables in Scotland, they lure riders into watery deaths." Kara's voice was exaggeratedly ominous.

Lena laughed. "I suppose... I have a brother that is quite fond of luring lovers into water marriages, they'll ultimately die of course."

"Mermaids are into humans like that?" Kara squeaked out.

"We as a species are quite focused on the death of yours."

"That's not what I..." Kara glanced down at Lena's teasing smirk and could've very well died from embarrassment. "How would that even… What do you mean lovers?"

"Lex fancied making men and women fall for him so he could lure them on romantic swims into the ocean, with nary more than promise of devotion, it wouldn't matter if they had hunter blood or not… I think he preens over his irresistibility, but that has always been our curse and gift."

"Being irresistible?" Kara asked, mouth dry as a desert and voice as fine as a grain of sand.

"I would say that's one of our traits." Lena angled slowly until she was sitting up, leaned back onto her palms, her arched spine making her quite a display. "Wouldn't you?"

Kara blushed. She liked Lena. Had liked her the moment she saw her and then gotten to talk to her. Lena didn't seemed to care who she was, didn't know that Kara was bisexual leaning heavily into wanting women, specifically women like Lena. It just seemed a little unfair to get teased.

It was confusing to be so attracted to someone that could very well eviscerate her. Lena's brother had hid his ferocious nature till the end while Lena had been nothing but honest if a bit sparse on specific details. Though the blatant teasing that could obviously go nowhere seemed a step away from a genuine friendship.

Kara felt flummoxed and foolish. She turned and headed back towards town. In her haste she left behind her backpack and missed the disappointment on Lena's face.


	9. Chapter 9

It had been a week since Kara had spoken to Lena, but she didn't know what to do. She had trekked back to the cove to find her backpack missing and no hair or tail of Lena. She had wanted to apologize, but Lena never showed up. She waited one full day then another full day the next, but realized she was being pushy and intrusive in what was essential the cage she had forced Lena into.

She had caused a creature of lore and the great unknown to become confined in essentially a tiny wading pool.

Kara had returned the following days to drop off increasingly larger fish. As if the size could compensate somehow for taking the open waters from Lena.

At least she was becoming increasingly popular with the local fishermen.

Kara had to respect Lena's wishes, but all she wanted to do was talk to Lena. She swore she sometimes heard Lena's voice within town with how much she was missing her.

Whatever was between them it had started the moment they met. This all consuming wanting that beat with each pump of her heart. She had felt pulled into the waters without much prompting that fateful night. It felt as if she could just stay long enough in Lena's presence then she'll know.

Know what was evidently missing, but wasn't noticeable till she met Lena.

She was positive that this pulsing, living feeling in her chest would only settle at Lena's side. Whether it was reciprocated or not, Kara dearly wanted to see the mermaid again.

"Why is there a lady with no shoes on our front porch?" Astra tried to tap Kara on her shoulder, but her niece had already popped up from the chair to look. "And why is she's wearing your shirt and backpack."

"Did you get a summer fling and not tell me?!" Alex smacked Kara proudly and too roughly on the back.

"What no! I'm not into women"

Alex gave Kara a 'what are you going on about' stare. "You must really like this one to come up with such flimsy bullshit, you damn well know this whole family is made up of queers, it's a statistical anomaly that Louis married into the family through Clark and not someone else."

Kara was about to respond, but heard Lena's voice. "I'm...confused. I formally apologize. If you're uncomfortable with me courting you, I'll cease my attempts… I see your family is present so perhaps we can talk another time."

Kara leapt over her sister and around her aunt to swing open the door. Lena was already walking down the street, but sans backpack. Kara jammed into a pair of runners, snatched up her backpack and sprinted after the brunette.

"Ah, to be young and enjoying puppy love." Astra smiled fondly.

"Puppy love…" Alex murmured, not quite sure if that was the term to be used. She has never seen Kara act this way before.


	10. Chapter 10

"Lena!" Kara nearly tripped, but the mermaid caught her for the briefest of moments before moving on and away. "Lena, please wait!"

Lena kept walking, but eased her pace, it would be unfortunate if Kara's haste caused her to actually fall and smash her fragile human skull against a rock. Lena should've known better, should've remembered that humans are short-lived beings, made entirely of rash indulgences and fickle unexplainable whims. "You just gave up after two days, but then kept up with your offerings."

"I said I would! I wasn't going to let you starve!"

"I didn't think you were genuine about bringing me food, I can hunt in the inlet and forest around the cove, and I may have exaggerated my distaste for furred animals." Lena spun around which made the dark wrap around her waist swirl, she carefully forced her next words out. "We only hunt for our offspring and accept food from our mates or potentials"

Lena's pale features were dusted crimson. She agitatedly toyed with the ends of her obsidian hair instead of facing Kara's astonished face.

The moon hung heavy in the night sky, seemingly captivated and drawn in by Lena's presence alone, it made her skin glow in the evening light. Among the few passing tourist, among mundane humans, Lena was a fairytale come to flesh..

If the celestial stars and moons were transfixed by the lone mermaid, what chance did Kara have to being anything, but smittened.

Kara took a step forward, absolutely delighted by what Lena had unveiled, her voice laced with wonderment. "I didn't know."

"I'm now aware of that." Lena said crisply, though she cast her eyes downwards when Kara could only smile dopily back at her. Lena shook her head and quickened towards the nearest beach, it wasn't necessarily the safest route since her pod may still lie wait, but it would be faster to transverse than the forest path.

"Lena, there's still a lot of tourist around that area since there's a party tonight."

Lena paused, she was willing to chance physical danger, but to expose herself to mere mortals, her eyes glanced to Kara's, more mortals would only endanger her pod. "I know my way back."

"Let me come with you, please, the forest is dangerous at night."

Lena's eyes paled, the protective membranes shuttering over her eyes. "I can handle whatever fae there are."

"I just meant the terrain…," Kara held out her hand, fingertips hovering just over Lena's wrist bone, "Lena please, let me talk to you while we walk."

Lena lowered her eyes to where Kara had respectfully ceased her approach and warred with herself over whether she was relieved of stymied by Kara's politeness.

'Very well.' Lena pathed to the human instead of admitting anything else out loud.


	11. Chapter 11

Kara had asked to talk, but didn't have the faintest clue on how to go about it.

What was she supposed to say? Share how she hadn't been aware she had been courting Lena. How she was elated to know that Lena reciprocated her feelings. That she had left so abruptly before because… because...

How was she expected to act when Lena's teasing advances had occurred right after she had revealed her brother's deadly conquests if humans.

Also, was she supposed to call the police about Lex's cruel hobby? What were the police even capable of doing against fatal merman encounters? She quickly brushed aside the thought. It was only nature taking its course. Humans just weren't aware of their place on the food chain. Maybe she could post flyers warning for caution, but people vacationed for a break from their safely defined lives.

Kara looked over at Lena and saw her struggling to balance on the log they were crossing. Kara offered her hand and smiled cheerfully when Lena took it without a word.

Lena allowed for them to keep their fingers interlaced as they made their way forward.

Kara wracked her brain on what to say, but the more she tried to force the words out the more tangled she felt. Lena's hand was unbelievably soft, it made Kara wonder if the rest of her was just as inviting or if her tail was… holy cripes she had a lot of inappropriate questions that even the internet would fail to help her with. Kara has always seen herself as vanilla compared to the rest of her family. Considering what Astra shared too openly and too often, and the numerous pairs of handcuffs that Alex just happened to own, but nope.

She's a Zor-El through and through.

What if she was a bad lover and her lacklustre performance tars all of humanities' reputation. Her prowess has never been put under inspection since Lena was the first being she has even humoured the idea of being intimate with.

Fuck, her train of thought was completely off topic and wholly mortifying.

Lena giggled and nearly stumbled, but righted herself and carried on as if nothing happened.

Kara was with this incredible woman with a million and one questions to ask, and yet. What if they don't click? She has no practice with human dating so what would that mean for whatever kind of dating this was?

Why was she so attracted to something that could very well eat her whole face off with one bite? Oh, she shouldn't have thought about eating and Lena. It just made her think about how Lena said she could eat her whole. Kara was of course willing to...actually she preferred to take the initiative, but how was she supposed to-

"Kara."

Kara froze mid step. Leg literally suspended in the air as she sheepishly turned to Lena.

Lena drew their joined hands towards her chest until Kara was only a breath away. "May I kiss you?"

'Yes!' Kara gleefully thought. She placed her hand on Lena's hip. The material of the wrap skirt felt like gossamer scales

Lena angled her mouth up and gently pressed into Kara. She waited ever so patiently until Kara broke out of her stupor and enthusiastically kissed back..

'Oh, she's so...oh I can definitely do kissing!'

Lena laughed mid-kiss and bit lightly onto Kara's bottom lip before pulling away. She smirked at Kara's bemused expression. "As you can see, I didn't eat your whole face."

"Oh my god, you heard all of that?!"

"You were pathing quite loudly, sweetling."


	12. Chapter 12

Kara feverishly focused on maintaining a internal dialogue. She recited the entirety of her biochemistry notes from last semester and began to delve into marine biology when she felt a squeeze from Lena's hand.

"Would you like to learn how to oyster your pearls?"

"What?"

"As enlightening as it was to learn that eels have merged dorsal, caudal and anal fins," Lena tapped her index finger against Kara's temple, "you can control your thoughts more precisely with training or," Lena lifted their joined hands, "physical distance from me should also lessen our telepathetic link."

Kara instead held Lena's hand a little tighter and leaned just short of pressing her lips against the taller woman's cheek. The mermaid patiently waited only for Kara to pause shy and indecisively by her ear. "I don't want distance."

"Then I will show you through practice." Lena captured Kara's lips with a smirk.

Kara welcomed the affection, she chased after Lena's lips when her partner seemed to move too far. Kara cupped her hands around Lena's jaw. By her pinky she could feel the rise of Lena's gill coverings. They appeared to remain close as long as the mermaid stayed on dry land.

Lena's lips were tantalizingly luscious. They took Kara's thoughts from her notes and very much on… She dropped her hands to Lena's shoulders and shoved the other woman back.

"May...Maybe we should start on the lesson." Kara blurted out, a little out of breath and concerned if she was telepathing too much again.

"Connection makes it easier to guide, so your comfort and familiarity towards me is paramount." Lena leaned against Kara's hold, who allowed the other woman to come closer ever so slowly. Lena held a glimpse away before moving her lips away from Kara's nervous smile and instead landing against a flushed cheek.

"Oh." Kara pouted, apparently undecided on denying herself Lena's lips.

Lena pulled back and laughed, her amusement a melody Kara wanted to hear for the rest of her life. "I shouldn't tease, but you're far too sweet, I started a peck and you drew me in only to rebuff me when all you want is more?"

Kara abashedly looked away.

"Sweetling," Lena tilted Kara's face up to meet hers, pressing her impish smile against Kara's for just a moment, "you flatter me."

Kara's eyes were focused on Lena's lips again, but she made a valiant effort to uphold her standing as a researcher and try to understand this scientific phenomena. "I want to learn how to ummm…" Kara sighed and gave up the pretense, "not just loudly fawn all over you"

"You would deprive me of your kind thoughts?" Lena sounded a tad aggrieved.

"What no!" Kara bit her lip, but blinked when she saw Lena's eyes spark with mirth. "You're still teasing me aren't you?"

Lena kissed her once, and then twice, lessening Kara's pout with each caress of her lips. She stopped only when Kara was grinning ear to ear and waited invitingly for Kara to take the initiative once again.

Kara failed to disappoint.

Lena taught Kara how to erect mental barriers and how to alter the volume of her thoughts.

It was a muscle that Kara had never consciously used which made her feel like she was learning how to swim for the first time. Lena opened up her mind and drew Kara in. Lena's consciousness was a vast ocean, but adrift within it was when Kara learnt the fastest. It was much easier to follow Lena's lead, to craft her own shield or shell as Lena termed it when Lena guided her thoughts into formation.

It was exhausting, but Kara eventually felt a wall begin to form. Lena maintained a flowing mental dialogue. Both to help Kara learn how to receive and how to shut out a continuous voice. It was also because Lena had missed having someone to talk to, had especially missed Kara.

She allowed her more fragile and hopeful emotions to seep through, but doubted Kara had the ability to understand what was being shared.

"Whoa." Kara suddenly paused her step only to pull Lena into a fervent kiss, in her ardent zeal she pressed Lena up against a curving tree,

"You're impressively receptive." Lena said breathlessly, abashed from being found out.

Kara was just as dizzy from their kiss and hid her face against Lena's cool neck. At this proximity and after how open Lena had been, Kara felt herself sink deeper into a timeless mind.

She realized she had only been at the cresting waves early while she was now submerged in a boundless entity.

Kara felt rushed by an never ending depth of memories, so vast and so quickly did the memories come that it was hard for Kara to even understand what she was seeing. All those glimpses were from great decades of past lives, whole human lineages worth of experiences, but also plunges of emptiness that were scarred with age, but raw as a fresh wound.

Lena gasped and held Kara off. "Please, don't."

Kara stumbled off, instantly apologetic.

"It's not you," Lena tugged Kara back into her arms, "you didn't do anything wrong, there are just things I wish not to dwell on."


	13. Chapter 13

The rest of the trek, while arduous, was spent companionably. They would pause between lessons just to leisurely kiss. Kara was at first hesitant, feeling guilty for inadvertently prying, but Lena was in good spirits. She showed Kara repeatedly that there were no ill feelings, and was just as apologetic for drowning Kara in her memories. Their feelings blossomed unhindered by the momentary darkness.

"Whoa." Kara was surprised to find them already at the beach. "I hadn't even noticed."

"I had, walking is so inefficient." Lena firmly noted.

Kara laughed at the serious expression on Lena's face and bent so her forehead was against Lena's. "You make me really happy."

"The climate here is quite hot, it's one of the reasons why we migrate here."

Kara pulled away and blinked, worried that Lena was actually still upset with her, but when she realized that Lena was just giving her a hard time she shook her head and laughed. She tried to return what had been shared with her. It was hard to encapsulate everything she felt. She may be pathing too strongly, but it was authentic and honest.

From the first bit of electricity she had felt the moment their eyes had met and then the growing feeling of having known one another in another time, with shared memories as real and ephemeral as the wisps of a fading dream.

Lena released herself from the link first, her features warmed with pleasure. "You're a natural empath, it's why your survival instincts appear low when in fact you're able to discern when you're danger and when you're safe."

"Like how I know I'm safe with you here?" Kara brushed the back of her fingers along Lena's cheek, shifting loose strands of hair away and behind a flared ear.

Lena's eyes closed as she shivered. In the dappled moonlight Kara could see the distinct shimmerings of greenish hues darken along pale pale inky tendrils of colour spread along the flawless skin of Lena's body, disappearing from view beneath clothing and wrap. It seemed to pool from behind the frills of her ears. It spilled along her neck before plunging beneath the neckline of the borrowed shirt.

Kara wondered if the colouring followed the unseen lateral lines. "You're… Are you alright?"

"You fool," Lena swallowed up any further questions with another kiss, "I'm fond of you."

"Me too, which was why I was telepathing what, oh," Kara tried to clarify between kisses as Lena coaxed her out of her shirt. "I guess you know, oh, okay."

"You're very warm." Lena murmured as nibbled on Kara's neck, pulling slightly so her partner would kneel down.

They were under the canopy of leaning trees, the rich warm climate having made the ground flourish with almost bioluminesce moss. Kara landed on her back when Lena gave a another push.

"I'm normally, more…"

"Husssssh," Lena 's' elongated in the most serpentine fashion, "let me have you first."

It wasn't only Lena's voice that was enticing, it was the words themselves. No magic could've made Kara feel this piliable and excited.

Lena pressed down against Kara, touching her cool soft lips against Kara's deliciously warm one's. She only moved on when Kara was breathless below her, she traveled the heated expanse of Kara's skin. "Ssso… so warm… I see you don't flush with colours when you're aroused, you just waste all this energy in making your skin blaze like the sun."

Kara squeaked as Lena mouthed at the material of her bikini top.

"My own personal sun," Lena said between each bite of her very very sharp teeth, "stranded on dry land."

"I think I prefer being lost at sea." Kara ran her hands along Lena's shoulders, then down her back and towards her ass.

Kara imagined this similar to holding liquid mercury. Skin as cool as metal, but inhumanely silken with faint scales. If she pressed and squeezed she could feel muscle as strong as any corded steel resist her efforts. Maybe she was holding the ocean itself, since Lena was just as powerful and deadly.

Lena licked her lips.

Mercury was poisonous and volatile even at room temperature.


	14. Chapter 14

Lena plucked at the strands that held Kara's bikini top. "Would it sadden you to lose this?"

"Huh- no?"

Lena clawed her talons sharply down Kara's side, pressure not quite drawing blood, but leaving long trails of angry red lines. Kara found herself arching into it. The mermaid smiled ravenously, then with a twist of her wrist snapped the string that held the piece together.

Lena applied her teeth to the loop of material around Kara's neck, taking the time to let her canines and incisors drag promisingly over pulse point and breath. Kara gasped, she should have known what was to come, but still. When Lena pulled away she sat proudly accomplished astride Kara's hips, the swimwear within her maw. Her eyes were lit with a predator's focus as she assessed Kara's body.

Kara would've thought she'll feel skittish, but found herself only wanting to bask under Lena's feverish attention. The fact that Lena could just as well use her teeth and talons to maim was pure intoxication, maddening to her soul.

Lena flung the top away and leaned closed to watch Kara's pupils dilate. Kara was met halfway for another kiss. Lena tried to keep her own fervor at bay, but with Kara rolling her hips for friction and biting for every nip Lena gave… she tasted blood before she realized that Kara's lip had split.

Soft pliable human skin was defenseless against a predator's teeth.

Lena tugged away, but Kara followed her through the motion, wrapping her arms around Lena's neck to keep her close enough to continue their kiss.

Lena tasted blood, Kara's blood. It was sweeter than anything she has been able to sample for eons. Were all humans this delectable? She could understand Lex's fixation if every landwalker tasted this scrumptious. Lena licked tentatively, not wanting to irritate the wound enough to cause pain. If she was patient, her saliva's numbing qualities would seep into the slight wound.

With repeated licks she slathered her much longer tongue in warm blood. She pulled away when Kara was all, but breathless.

Her human's chest was fluttering rapidly. Moving like a prey's that had been skillfully captured. Lena's eyes shuttered. "Do I frighten you?"

"No." Lena's emerald tongue was lolling out and her lips and chin were slicked with Kara's blood, it gleamed obsidian under moonlight. "No, I'm not scared."

"Mmmmm, I'll be sssso accommodatingly to my soft soft human." Lena's jaw was still hinged, but while her voice became a song, her jaw was moving oddly, like it was being mindfully kept in place instead of naturally holding shape.

"You don't have to be." Kara said hastily, she pulled at the bottom of Lena's shirt, tugging it off to reveal spiraling ink green on snow white skin. "I know you won't hurt me badly, and hell, look at you."

"Next time, tonight, let me be sweet to you, my human," Lena's movements were fluid, smooth as a fish in water. She bit lightly at Kara's nipple, ever so mindful of tearing through human skin, "my Kara."

Kara cradled her hand behind Lena's head, her fingers tracing lightly at the frills and tendrils that were on the fringed ears, moving along the base of Lena's scalp.

"Tides!" Lena craned back as her teeth clinked sharply together. "Careful, Kara, sweetling please, I'm very sensitive there now, I could've bit you."

"I wouldn't mind." Kara said a little too quickly.


	15. Chapter 15

"You should be able to sense cresting danger, perhaps you colour for it?" Lena nuzzled her face against the crook of Kara's neck, her human smelt like salt from the hike here and from the ocean breeze. She nibbled at Kara's shoulders, ever so gently, keeping herself in check as Kara's fingers worked along the base of her scalp, stroking the sensitive frills. "Kara...pleassse"

Lena angled to straddle Kara's thigh, she worked herself slowly against her partner, a purring clicked in her throat in rhythm with each press of her body against Kara's.

Lena wrapped her mouth around the bone of Kara's shoulder, worked her teeth into the skin without slicing through. She watched Kara carefully, measured the beats of her human's heart.

"It's okay." Kara lightly stroked over the frills .'Please, I want you to…'

Lena had been curbing her tendency to bite, but it seemed pointless under the continued encouragement. She pierced her main set of jaws into flesh, heedful of keeping the damage out of tendon or bone.

Kara groaned and bucked up into Lena who equally pressed down and increased the motion of her hips. 'Kara, I was supposed to have you first.'

With commendable self-control Lena stopped grinding and dragged her taloned hand over a taut stomach to move under Kara's trunks swimwear. She cradle her hand again Kara's sex, and carefully, so carefully pressed the pads of her digits against an engorge clit. She kept steady pressure and allowed Kara to set her own pace.

Lena's teeth were still lodged in Kara's shoulder so too much squirming meant her partner would agitate or tear at the wound. Though Lena was mindful to give Kara sole control of how much pain she wished to endure and enjoy.

When Kara's breaths were ragged and just nearly there, Lena released her bite and smirked at the whimper she created. "Do I have your trust?"

Kara frantically nodded, reaching to draw Lena back towards her.

Lena grasped Kara's wrist, kissing each palm. "Shhhhh."

Lena pushed Kara's hands to lay above her head, neatly clasping them together. "Don't touch me when I'm there, I don't want to risk hurting you, give me your word."

"I promise." Kara answered obediently.

Lena smiled and once again captured Kara's lips before trailing her attention downwards. Shredding the remaining clothing on Kara's body with savage ease. She used her thumbs to spread Kara open and sucked on Kara's clit with her lips..

Lena had to be cautious, had to ensure Kara only received desirable pain.

Lena took experimental licks, clearly more for flavour than for Kara's benefit. "You taste different, less salty and more tangy."

Kara blushed and tried to bring her thighs together, but Lena was stronger and very much so between them.

"Sweetling, may I?"

"Please!"

Lena repeatedly licked along Kara's glistening folds, staying her attention on where ever made Kara buck and cry. Her lips and tongue were fully coated in Kara's pleasure by the time she probed deeper. She experimentally inserted the tip of her tongue, but with the increase of Kara's moans she allowed more to unravel into the smoldering heat.

Kara's human physiology made her much warmer than Lena on a average day. It had never been a point of interest, but now, now it consumed Lena with want when it felt like she was devouring the sun itself.

The tip of her tongue was more pointed than a humans. It started thin, but widened and thickened in girth the more she gave. Further along the surface of her tongue were numerous ridges and nodes meant for sensing the most distant prey.

Kara hissed as she felt herself spread against Lena's intrusion. It had started so slowly, but now she was being filled with hungry abandon.

Lena stilled. She was reluctant, but willing to withdraw if she was causing Kara any actual discomfort. 'Are you okay?'

"Just," Kara keened, "don't stop."

Lena redoubled her efforts while Kara dug her fingers deep into the undergrowth to abide by her promise. Though it didn't stop her from moving to urge for more. She backed and push against Lena's touch. It didn't matter how far she moved away, the length of Lena's tongue allowed her to stay in blissful contact. The shape of the bumps and nodes caused them to jostle themselves into new deliciously pressing forms with each roll of her hips.

Lena slipped her arms under Kara's thighs and held her partner in place. She wanted to dive completely into the fiery ambrosia. She savoured the captive sun as Kara plunged herself into oblivion.

Lena added her fingers, managing to crook and find Kara's folds and ridges. The additional stretching wound Kara so tightly she couldn't breathe. She felt like she would break, shatter into frenzied bliss if she could… if she could...

'Let go, Kara, be mine.'


	16. Chapter 16

Lena prolonged attentions until Kara was utterly spent. After thoroughly licking the remnants of Kara's pleasure from between quivering thighs, she retracted her tongue and moved up to cradle her barely conscious partner.

Lena tsked, "I can't believe you said mermaids were messy, you've absolutely drenched me."

Kara mumbled incoherently while she bonelessly draped her arms around Lena's waist.

"I'm quite serious, I will have to wash up or continue to scent like you've marked me."

Kara's only answer was to tighten her pathetically loose grip and curl a hand around Lena's ass, digging her fingers into the globes of muscle.

"I can free myself quite easily, you're strong only by human standards."

'Just give me sec, I'm not a pillow princess.'

"Kara, my darling, I haven't the slightest clue what that term means," Lena enchanted a spell to drip from her tongue and licked at the still bleeding wound on Kara's shoulder, "don't squirm, this will help with coagulation and cleanse any potential harm."

Kara sluggishly moved until she could kiss Lena's chin and cheek. She licked lazily along Lena's jaw, tasting her own excitement, she really had made quite an ordeal. She would've continued till she roused herself, but Lena stiffened and arched protectively over Kara.

Lena's eyes paled and her jaw snapped open as she hissed at something approaching from the ocean. At this proximity, Kara could see that while Lena's cheeks thinned with the stretch they never actually tore. She had thought Lena' ripped through her cheeks to accommodate the unhinged jaw. It was clear now that the elongation only made certain parts of the skin layer translucent.

The sudden change in Lena's posture immediately woke Kara. "Lena, whats wrong?"

Several waxy leafed plants were torn apart to reveal a woman who was as surreal in her beauty as she was in her livid irritation. "You're supposed to eat up the human, not eat it out."

Lena slouched slightly, her features returning to a more human appearance. "Why have you come to land, Jessamine?"

"Why have I... the nerve!" Jessamine was wrapped in a floor length skirt similar to Lena's except hers was chasm dark and shimmered with flecks of gold instead of turquoise. "I came to verify what I thought was insane gossip! The Luthorian pod heir apparently flipping out of a rite of passage. Though I would have prefer a deserter than a Mer that curls with its meal!"

Lena stood in front of Kara and glowered down at Jessamine. "Kara isn't a meal."

"Oh great, you named it, when you name something you're going to get attached to it, which only makes killing it all the harder, look I'll just help you drown it, you're welcomed."

Lena intercepted the other creature's hand. "Don't. touch her."

"You want to have a round, over a human?!" Jessamine's eyes shuttered gold and mouth split wide open, if Kara were to describe it she would akin Jess's face to a sarcastic fringehead. Lena's jaw had always unhinged like an eels, but the way this mermaid's face opened it up left little humanity to be witnessed. The inside of her cheeks were a dull metallic gold, and the jaw was lined with teeth much smaller than Lena's, but much more numerous.

Jessamine looked at Lena's grip on her wrist and bristled for an attack.

Kara scrambled up with the closest thing in her reach and promptly swung it towards the new mermaid.


	17. Chapter 17

Lena backed away and tugged Jessamine along with her to avoid Kara's swing.

Jess ripped her wrist free, which only put her back in direct trajectory which meant she had to backpedal hard. Her momentum teetered her barely dried legs off balance and caused her to slam the back of her head into a boulder.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Kara dropped her backpack and knelt down beside Jess, "are you alright?"

Jess cast her eyes lividly at Kara then accusatorily up at Lena. "Is it defective, it doesn't seem to understand that I was about to drown it."

"I'm not a 'it' and you aren't going to drown me now." Kara checked the back of Jessamine's skull, careful to avoid the frills along that area, but found neither blood or even a bump.

Jessamine groaned in annoyance at the fretting and rolled her eyes until they snapped into the back of her skull, her eyes remained white until she shuttered them as she spoke. "I can't deal with either of you useless female loving shells," she sniffed, "go wash off."

Lena knew that Jessamine wouldn't try anything at their exposed backs, but she still positioned herself defensively behind Kara. Jessamine was fond of insensitive confrontations with friends, and only saving her hidden machinations for her enemies. Lena hoped that no matter how Jess felt about her choice of mate it has left their age long friendship unmarred.

She trailed several steps after her human, but cast her eyes back towards the forested area of the beach. Jessamine had a skeptical look on her face as she watched Kara, though perhaps with a little less disdain than before.

When they reached the end of the pier, Lena asked for Kara to wait. She submerged first and patrolled a fast and thorough round of the lagoon before waving Kara to join in.

"I'm sorry." Kara's voice had been quiet enough to draw Lena closer.

Lena had been staying relatively near Kara during their washing, but had made sure not to touch her human. She wanted to remain vigilant. The waters may be calm and clear, but the stillness could be disrupted in a moment and Kara's life just as easily disturbed.

Lena tilted her head. "What do you have to be sorry about?"

"For hurting your friend." Kara had every intent on apologizing to her would be attacker.

"Kara," Lena huffed, concerned for the trouble her human's kind nature may eventually bring her, "she has been referring to you as an 'it' this whole time and then a shell."

"Surprising that you would also have the phrase 'useless lesbian'."

"Lesbian?"

"Yeah, women that like women… us? Well maybe just you, if you prefer... I mean I prefer both… or maybe I'm demisexual because you're a fish and I'm into you as well, but not like a fish fish."

"Kara, please don't refer to me as fish, I eat fish, I tend not to consume other mermaids."

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, right definitely not a fish!"

"We don't have terms for attraction, coupling occurs between whoever wishes it while mating happened between our strongest."

"Strongest…?"

"Strongest pair, sex does not prohibit procreation, only the moon determines that."

"Okay, that's really cool, I'm super stoked to be learning all of this but-"

"I SAID WASH UP, NOT INDULGE IN WHATEVER IS TAKING YOU TWO THIS LONG TO COME BACK!"


	18. Chapter 18

When they returned to waist deep water, Lena prepared to drag herself up, but paused when Kara tapped her shoulder. "Could I just carry you up, at least back to where Jessamine is?"

Lena frowned pensively. "It wouldn't look good for me to appear weak in front of Jessamine."

Kara worried her lip as Lena determinedly beached herself and then began to pull herself up on her belly. Half of Lena's body was pressed up against the shore when the mermaid gave a belaboured sigh and pushed back into the deeper water. She swam for a while before bringing herself in front of Kara.

'It's too uncomfortable right now to press against the sand.' Lena coloured and was thankful when Kara didn't ask, only positioned herself to cradle Lena into her arms.

Kara has worked every summer since she turned 16 as a lifeguard and volunteered at the marine rehabilitation institute once she began her degree. She was certain she was strong enough to carry Lena, and even if she wasn't, she doubted that Lena would struggle about like a injured dolphin would.

'I heard that, I'm no hapless marine animal.' Lena tightly grasped Kara's bicep for the poor insinuation.

'I didn't mean anything by it, I'm sorry.' Kara tilted her head to look at Lena and wondered if she had failed to telepath her words when her companion remained silent. She found Lena staring intently at her arm and felt the mermaid thumb over the defined rise of muscle, there was a growing blush on Lena's features. "Lena? That tickles, are you alright?"

"Of course!" Lena released her hand and quickly wrapped her arms around Kara's neck to help hold her position. "Please don't drop me,I wouldn't want to fall."

"Well it's too late for me."

"You're still standing, if you really can't carry me-"

"No, no, I've got you." Kara wasn't tall enough to prevent the end of Lena's fin from trailing through the sand, but she certainly could hold her… her girlfriend? "Ha, I just meant, like 'help I've fallen and I can't get up."

"Are you making fun of me?"

Kara shook her head and bit her lip. Meme culture was a bit much to explain. 'Is it alright for me to lean you against the same tree as Jessamine?'

"I can hear you whether you talk or path, your mental abilities are calloused and calf like."

Lena sighed at Jessamine's pettiness. "Yes, we'll be fine, thank you."

Kara would've been more embarrassed of her nudity if either Lena or Jessamine seemed to mind, but they were half nude themselves and clearly not too focused on Kara as they stared each other down. Kara rummaged in her pack for a change of clothes, she tried to get her clothing on as fast as possible, just incase Jessamine tried anything.

Kara had hoped that by the time she was back that the two would have solved their issues, but they were still silent as stones. She joined them, forming a loose circle. Sitting in her jean shorts was irritating, she was too sore and wished she had packed something more flexible. This would have all been fine and wonderful if they had gotten to continue their night alone.

After several long awkward minutes, Kara thought it best to give the two some room. "I'm," Kara stalled when two mermaid's shot their eyes up at her, "going to start a fire."

"You do that." Jessamine decreed as if she had came up with the idea.

Lena glared at the other mermaid, but didn't say much else.

Kara tried to keep out of their space and built a fire that roared pleasantly into life. They were in a good enough spot so she continued to create a lean-to for her and Lena to share and another for Jessamine if they wanted it. It was long work, especially with the amount of fatigue that was making her shake. By the time Kara had completed the rock curvatures around the fire that would reflect heat into the prospective lean-tos, Lena had dried enough to regain her legs.

Kara had hoped to witness the transformation, and felt a little disheartened to have missed it again.

"Kara, stay by the fire." Lena stretched out the kinks in newly formed legs then faced Jessamine. "Well, let's get this over with."

"What do you mean?" Kara hadn't fully asked her question before Jessamine screeched and tackled into Lena who deftly rolled with the momentum and threw the other mermaid off.

The pair circled one another on the slanted beach with their talons out and their words abandoned.


	19. Chapter 19

As if on cue they came at one another in a flash of movement. Their eyes had shuttered, but their jaws remained hinged. Each time their talons came together a sickening screech emitted from the contact.

Metal nails on chalkboard

Kara wanted to stop the fighting, but when she stood up, Lena swiveled around and pathed for her to stay. The momentary distraction meant Jessamine was able to slip pass Lena's defence and connect sharp talons into bare abdomen. Lena hissed and didn't immediately follow when Jessamine backed to give her a chance to gain her bearing.

Each swing and friction created a ear piercing tone. It was headache inducing and Kara spectated wearily as the fight dragged on. She tried to keep conscious, but found herself slipping into jarring naps, each time woken when the pair of talons connected.

Kara found herself waking to the pair speaking amicably in the daylight.

"When I told you to be brave and stand up to your brother and pod I didn't mean to curl with a human."

"Yes," Lena crossed her arms, "thank you I am aware of that."

"It won't last," Jessamine stated, "humans have non-existent life spans."

"Then I'll cherish every moment she's willing to share with me." Lena said softly, turning to look at Kara who sheepily closed her eyes and feigned sleep, she was intruding on a private conversation.

"I'm migrating with my pod to sink several commercial fishing liners and disappear a military base from our ocean floors," Jessamine extended her hand, "I'll be passing my rite this season... it won't be the same without you."

"I'll miss you too, Jessamine." Lena grasped Jess's forearm and shook.

Jessamine came towards the fire and offered Kara her arm. "I know you're awake,human."

Kara blinked up at the mermaid and stood before mimicking what Lena had done.

Jessamine tugged Kara until she was close enough to gnaw off a ear. "I will bring all of ocean kind to wipe out this stinking human community and all else you cherish if anything were to happen to Lena."

When Jessamine leaned slightly away her smile was all teeth.

Kara nodded and solemnly promised. "I wouldn't put Lena in harm's way."

"You stupid human child," Jessamine laughed bitterly, "your proximity is harmful enough, thankfully you'll be a short indulgence."

"Jessamine!" Lena pulled her friend away by the shoulder, but Jess shrugged out of it.

"I'm just looking out for a sister." Jessamine turned from the pair. 'I've organized that all pods in this region, yours including are going on this sink, you'll be safe in these water till next summer.'


	20. Chapter 20

After Kara noted that it was nearing noon, Lena offered to fetch them something to eat. Kara had just brought the fire back to life when Lena returned with a snake long enough to drape around her neck and shoulders several times over. It looked suspiciously like it was mixed with another type of animal.

"You never needed my help, did you?" Kara asked as Lena approached. Kara's swing at Jessamine hadn't left a mark and the lacerations on Lena's stomach was already healing.

Lena didn't answer, instead sat next to Kara and lengthened her talons. Kara was never close enough to see it happen before and now watched with apt attention. Scaly protrusions formed, hardening over skin like a mesh. The scales started at Lena's clawed fingertips and stopped at the bend of her elbow. The protrusions smoothed and flattened until they toughened into a armored glove.

Lena sliced easily through the snake's body, skinning it efficiently and then tearing out chunks of flesh to throw onto a plate sized leaf.

"What does this mean for us?"

Lena looked at Kara with an inscrutable gaze before returning to her task. "What do you want it to mean?"

"I want to keep dating you?"

"Dating... is courting?" Lena guessed while swiftly dismembering the meal.

"I feel like courting is much more seriously than dating, which is what I hope we are… cause we are serious?"

"Then why didn't you just use 'courting'."

Kara laughed nervously. "I don't know, cause I'm in my twenties suddenly finding out that mermaids are real and they sink boats and secret army bases. Which is a pretty freaking big deal, but I'm selfishly invested on how I'm going to be away from my girlfriend for two semesters with no way to stay in touch with her because she's a freaking mermaid and doesn't have a cellphone."

"I have a cellphone." Lena said nonchalantly.

"What?!"

"I took one from the stores and read how to use it during the week you were ignoring me." Lena said as if this information wasn't shocking or new. "I was following you back into town time and again."

"What? How can you read english? Did anyone see you steal? I could give you money, I have some saved up since I normally work during the summer, but I've been slacking off to see..."

"You weren't surprised when I could speak english, why wouldn't I be able to read it? We travel all over the Earth and have no need for money, my song is enough."

"Lena, what if someone noticed and got suspicious?"

"My song can take memories," Lena speared a raw section of meat onto her hand and took the whole piece into her mouth, her canines glistened, "there's nothing to fear."

"There's security cameras and-"

"Kara, the security cameras did not capture me when I went to get my waterproof phone."

Lena offered the leaf full of meat to Kara. "It didn't capture me the second time either when I had to return for a prepaid sim card, would you like my number?"

"Yes, of course I want your number!." Kara numbly took the offered make-shift tray and sighed. "My university classes start up in a month."

Lena could tell by Kara's tone why the subject was being brought up. "You'll be leaving the island."

"Yeah, my campus is landlocked and a plane ride away." Kara busied herself grabbing a prong from her backpack to roast her meal. Holy hell, here she was preparing a meal like it was normal to eat 'snake' with a mermaid.

The mermaid was quiet for so long that Kara had thought the topic doe and over with.

"I could keep you." Lena's voice held a intensity that could've held off time itself.


	21. Chapter 21

Kara felt a tremble start from deep within her.

For the first time she was truly seeing the agelessness in this being of mythology.

The forest quieted, nature letting Lena weave her spell. In the barely moving shade of the overarching branches, Lena was undeniably a creature of another world.

Lena was a dangerous fable that had chosen to sit by Kara's fire.

The mermaid's eyes glimmered with tenacious intent.

Lena has been soft, gentle and human even, but her true nature was a horror eons old. A creature that has haunted and hunted the waters of the globe with little regard for short lived human existences.

The distance between them was not only in their biology, their anatomy, but by the sheer magic of the ages that Lena has endured and witnessed.

"My song could bind you to me." Lena's eyes were animalistic, glassy as it reflected the now dwindling embers of flame.

"It could." Kara knew this to be true. The mermaid could enchant any living being to her. Even now, Kara has never fully forgotten the symphony of that fateful night. Kara would leave her human life and be glad of it, since the song promised nothing but bliss. "You could steal me from my life."

The air tensed while Lena coiled and watched her prey, she ominously made her way closer.

Her shadow seemed all encompassing, growing as it appeared to consume the fire light.

Her approach stopped when the flames crackled and broke the spell of the moment.

"Hmm." Lena returned to her task of butchering the meat, she plucked the snake's venom gland out before tossing it into the fire, the light churned into a greyish blue and all but went out. "I shall then."

Kara trembled in both fear and excited anticipation.

"For the time being, this month will suffice.."

"Okay, yeah okay," Kara breathed heavily as she took Lena's taloned hand in hers, careless of the drying blood and marveled at how painstakingly mindful Lena had to be to returned the squeeze, "that sounds fair."


	22. Chapter 22

Bind Me Within These Ocean's Tides Part 22 (Epilogue: Years in the future, a life has transpired with history revealed which tests their bond in this time.)

"The ruling sun loved and swelled our goddess moon, filled her till she was too heavy to stay in the morning sky with her lover." Lena kissed Kara longingly, mirroring the fabled affections. "Since she could never resist the sun's sweet advances she chose to keep vigil in the solitude of the night sky, their first joining created merkind and brimmed the oceans with life, but she could not endure another generation."

"That's heartbreaking." Kara has heard many creation stories before, but this one told with such magic in Lena's voice, it sounded as a reality too similar to theirs. "I can't imagine being apart like that."

"It's their devotion we honour, how ruling sun has followed goddess moon since their separation, each day and night they continue their familiar dance." Lena caressed Kara's cheek, her jaw and slender neck. "Their passion for one another keeps our world moving and thriving and if you would have me... then my zeal would match theirs, I would want you forever more."

"Lena…"

"I will follow you." Lena repeated firmly.

"I wouldn't ask that of you, I'm done my last contract so now I'll apply to work in the marine restoration branch here and we'll be together."

"And if your vocational pursuits sends you away from this island?"

"Everything I've done in this life was meant to take me back to the oceans, it was my passion for the seas that had thankfully led me back to you."

"Would you not miss me if I had to migrate?" Lena hissed and looked away. "Would you settle for us separating and joining only a handful of times a year?"

"Lena," Kara took her lover's face into her hands, waiting till luminescent eyes were open, "I have always needed to protect this world and I feel that especially strongly now that guarding the oceans will mean I'll be protecting you as well."

"Dryads are meant to settle and protect a glade," Lena closed her eyes and wrapped her arms tightly around Kara, "why did your protection instincts remain, but transfer onto such an impossibly vast habitat?"

"Aren't you happy that this time round we won't be landlocked?" Kara tilted her partner's face up and kissed at the cresting tears.

"You perished and finally returned to be reincarnated as a human," Lena sighed against Kara's touch."Your very existence is landbound."

"Then maybe my next won't be."

"I've barely gotten to know the you that you've become now!" Lena was livid with heartbreak. "Don't jest about next lives!"

"I'm sorry." Kara was immediately contrite, previous lives were always a sore subject. She soothingly rubbed Lena's back, "you're right."

Lena straightened, her expression solemn. "If you asked, I would trade my dry legs for you to have a tail."

That would guaranteed them near forever. Merkind were long lived, especially Lena's bloodline so a transformation with her magic would give them a chance to live the life they never finished.

"I… I want to do everything I can with my degree, if I were to go in to the ocean with you now I wouldn't be able to do more than shred what humanity continues to toss into the waters… I can't just give up the fight here on land." Kara bit her lip. "Are you... disappointed that I'm human?"

"Do not turn this on me!" Lena freed herself from Kara's arms and pulled on her sheer clothing. "I've never had issue with the forms you take, but it once again seems that it is I who cares whether or not we'll be together for long term."

"Lena, that's not fair, I had to stay," Kara reached out, but Lena moved away and glared down any further attempts, "I couldn't let them take my lands, so I fought them my way then and I'll fight them my way now."

"I cannot… not again." Lena had tears glistening in her eyes once again, but a decision had settled about her. "I cannot watch you once again waste your life on methods unfounded."

"I know what I'm doing Lena," Kara felt her own temper flare, "I'm not a child!"

"You were nearing your quarter millennium when they took your life then, what has changed?"

Before Kara could come up with an explanation, Lena had left the bedroom. Unable to deal with how Kara's selfless altruism would always stand between them. If she lost Kara in this life, she wouldn't have the ability to forge another memory purge. She would have to suffer her unbearably long lifespan in solitary heartbreak.

Kara was frustrated and stewing in her own anger that by the time she dressed and ran after her mate, Lena had disappeared into the oceans.


End file.
